1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display apparatus and a display method for displaying a user interface used for generating an instruction to an image processing apparatus which can perform a predetermined task on the basis of an operation by the user.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a multifunction peripheral device (MFP), which is based on, for example, a copying machine and can perform a plurality of functions, can implement not only a single function task such as copy, facsimile, print or box storage but also provide new functions in which these single functions are associated with each other. Further, these new functions can be remarkably complicated.
With such complicated functions, there is a problem that a user needs a large amount of effort to find and select processing to be performed by the multifunction peripheral (hereinafter, the processing is referred to as a “task”).
A supporting technique for performing such a task includes, for example, a technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-240818. This technique can facilitate reducing an operation burden on a user for performing suitable processing such as a schedule management or the like corresponding to input information. More specifically, a required job can be processed by a suitable apparatus in accordance with time.
In the above-described operation environment, the supporting technique for selecting a task further includes a searching method (1) and a classification indication method (2) which are performed via a user interface on a display apparatus.
In the searching method (1), a user enters a character string corresponding to a desired task to cause the display apparatus to display an operation item for generating an instruction to perform the task. When a complicated task in which a plurality of tasks is combined is searched for, the needed task can be selected by gradually performing searching operations. Thus, the searching method is effective even for an inexperienced user. However, even when a simple task is searched for, a similar searching operation is required. Therefore, the operation is not always simple depending on tasks to be searched for.
In the classification indication method (2), tasks are grouped for every type and hierarchized for every detailed function. A user proceeds with operations gradually in such a manner as to select a group and, then, select a detailed function. In this case, the user needs to assign a classification to each task in advance. Therefore, the user cannot easily use the interface until the user recognizes the classification. Thus, it is not an intuitive operation environment. As the number of functions is increased, the classification becomes more complicated.